Photo/Illutration A set of paints featuring eight colors, priced at 2,000 yen ($14), along with other products fashioned from materials bought from a cosmetics maker, are available online. (Nanako Matsuzawa)

While working at a cosmetics company, Hisanori Tanaka found a mountain of prototypes were being disposed of because they could not be marketed as the final product.

“The fact was sad for me as a developer,” he said. “I had pent-up emotions inside for a long time about it.”

A sudden flash of inspiration gave him the idea that unreleased products could be reused to provide a new source of joy for consumers.

“Cosmetics should be turned into paints people can use for fun,” Tanaka, 35, said he thought at the time.

Tanaka quit his job in research at the cosmetics company in 2018 and founded his own company, Mangata Co., in September the next year.

The SminkArt project by Tanaka adds new value to abandoned eye shadow and blush by recycling them as paints.

Smink is Swedish for “makeup.”

Powder cosmetics are coated with oil to bolster resistance to sweat and moisture. Tanaka developed a special agent that makes water-soluble paints by mixing it with beauty products for 10 seconds after the oil layers are removed.

As the agent is free from active surface ingredients, the finished pigments are composed exclusively of makeup items, which do less harm to people’s health when they use them.

Tanaka was granted a patent for the technology.

Utilizing his connections built via his career at his former employer, Tanaka teamed with a beauty product maker.

He bought nonmarketed samples with slightly mispositioned colors and other problems, and he completed pigments of more than 300 varieties of hues.

The developed agent, a specialized paintbrush and other tools were made available on the internet, with gradually rising sales.

The products have proven popular among mothers with small children because they helped parents play with their children as they stayed home due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

SminkArt offers hues unique to cosmetics, such as glittering luster and pearl-like gloss, which can be reproduced to create complicated paintings that can't be replicated through watercolors.

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A work created by a painter using SminkArt paints is characterized by glittering luster peculiar to makeup items. (Provided by Mangata Co.)

According to the findings of a survey conducted by Mangata in 2021, 86.3 percent of the 5,400 respondents discard disused makeup products. 

The upcycled pigments can bring relief to those who feel guilty about buying new makeup despite having many unused ones at home.

“By creating paints from their beloved cosmetics, I would like to offer the chance for people to enjoy a different form of artistic self-expression from makeup and reflect on what it is really like to express themselves,” said Tanaka.

The survey also revealed that Japan’s top five makers annually scrap 20,000 tons of prototypes and cosmetic materials through production processes or because of their expired safety dates. 

Beauty product manufacturers, thus, also welcome the upcycled paint program.

Kose Corp. and Kao Corp. chose Tanaka in February as a partner in their joint framework to render the cosmetics industry more sustainable.

A Kose representative described Tanaka as “creating a huge impact on the industry,” while a Kao official expressed “our extreme gratitude to him for having made us more aware that cosmetics can generate other value beyond makeup.”

Tanaka said he would be pleased if both developers and users become happier after they are freed from guilt about discarding unfinished items.

“Waste can be reduced when products are fully consumed,” he said. “That will contribute to society.

"I want to help achieve that goal.”

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Hisanori Tanaka, representative director of Mangata Co. who suggested the SminkArt recycle program, works with his older sister Mayuri to promote the upcycled pigments, with a painting using SminkArt at right. (Nanako Matsuzawa)

Recycled pigments can also be used for nails and other products, meaning an increase in workshops organized at commercial facilities featuring the pigments. A museum operator adopted SminkArt to offer limited-edition items at the establishment.

SminkArt has found a far wider range for its applications, such as being exhibited at the KidZania career-education center for children to learn about U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

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